The second mix in our Curratorial Mix Series - from CC/free netlabel blog Catching the Waves:

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Catching The Waves has been reviewing free netlabel and/or Creative Commons albums since 2006. That's pretty much it. The catalyst was a desire to thank CC artists for their marvellous free music and to further the cause of free and legal CC music. The reviews, which are the work of one lone idiot, are infrequent, short and badly written yet undeniably sexy. Visit CTW and you'll find reviews of anything from rock to IDM, trip-hop to minimal and even Country to Western. (I've used that joke before – I'm all for recycling.) You won't be bothered by fees, hidden or otherwise, advertising, requests to register or even recommendations for teeth-whitening regimes. However, there is a rather decent collection of links to netlabels and CC music portals.

I am deeply honoured to join in the fun at the FMA. My mix consists of some of the best tracks from some of the best albums that have been lassooed (SP) at CTW. It features lots of different genres, tempi and moods (rock, IDM, trip-hop, minimal, folk, ambient, etc.,) from as far afield as Germany, Japan, Colombia, the United States, France, Canada, Italy and the U.K. It was murderously difficult to whittle the mix down to a still unwieldy twenty tracks. It would be wonderful if people who were new to netlabels, and CC music in general, stumbled upon these songs and realised, as I did, that there's a whole world of wonderful music just waiting to be discovered – and that it's all free, legal and made by artists who want their music to be downloaded, copied and shared. Catching the waves can be fun...

My dirty secret: I've compiled this mix specifically to cause arguments in the FMA and in Creative Commons.org offices around the world as they argue as to which is the best track. Let the chaos begin!

The Machtdose team is honored to be invited to the Creative Commons curation project at the Free Music Archive.

We discovered the wonderful world of netaudio and netlabels some years ago. From the start we were fond of the idea of freely distributed music and how Creative Commons gave license models for it. Since 2005 we have done a monthly podcast, presenting our favorite tracks from netlabels all over the world. The netlabel scene is so rich in terms of sounds, styles and personalities that we're always coming back for more.

Our selection highlights some of the true gems we found over the last years. We recommend not only the single tracks but especially the full albums where we have taken them from - they are all worth a full listening. Enjoy!

Starts like your everyday Minimal House track, then it turns in something completely different and goes back to the days of Charleston. At the end it returns to presence. Strange enough - but that works.

The latest addition to our guest curation series comes from Spark, "a weekly audio blog of smart and unexpected trendwatching" from CBC.

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My name is Dan Misener, and I work on Spark, Canada's national technology/culture show from CBC Radio. I'm delighted to have been asked to participate in the Creative Commons curation project at the Free Music Archive. From its first episode in the fall of 2007, Spark has extensively featured CC-licensed music. Let me tell you why:

What the Web Sounds Like

A few years ago, the staff of Spark were preparing to make our very first episode of the show. We knew we wanted Spark to be more than a traditional broadcast radio program. We wanted it to be a collaboration and a conversation -- a platform for exploring the intersection of technology and culture. We wanted to embrace the values of online culture to talk about online culture. And as we worked on our first episode, one question we kept asking ourselves was, "What does the Internet sound like?" As it turns out, the Internet sounds an awful lot like the best CC-licensed music: collaborative, remixable, and constantly evolving.

Equality for podcasts and broadcasts

Here in Canada, using music in podcasts can be tricky business. Though rights and licensing agreements are in place for terrestrial broadcasts, that's not yet the case for podcasts. The result is that many over-the-air radio programs use commercial music, which must be removed or replaced for the podcast version. Usually, this means extra work, recutting a show so it's "podsafe."

When we started Spark, we were very keen to create a single, definitive version of the show for online and on-air. We didn't want our podcast to be a watered-down, "lite" version of Spark. Each and every week, we put a lot of time and attention into researching, writing, editing, and mixing Spark every week, and the quality of the end product shouldn't suffer because of the distribution mechanism.Spreadability, linkability

One of the great unintended consequences of using CC music on Spark has to do with the Attribution condition. Of course, artists deserve credit for their work, and each week, we post links to the music and artists featured on the show. If listeners hear a tune they like, they can easily find out who wrote it and download their very own copy. This is a win-win-win for the listener, the show, and the artist. Listeners get pointers to great CC-licensed music, Spark gets exposure on sites like CCMixter (via trackbacks), and the artists get heard by hundreds of thousands of people on Canadian public radio.

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Dan Misener is a producer on Spark, the national technology/culture show from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

End of year music lists are always incredibly difficult and 2010 is no different. More than ever it feels like there was a new release every day and a new artist to check out every week - keeping up with the pace can be daunting for ever the most seasoned music lover. As such this mix is by no means exhaustive - rather, it highlights some of my own personal favorites from the past year. All of these tracks are available here on the FMA along with a vast catalog of other CC-licensed music - so listen, explore, and digest what has been a great year for progressive, independent music.

Many fantastic CC record labels already release and curate free music, making my job of creating an end-of-year list easy. I also browsed various CC music communities to end up with the following, somewhat eclectic, mix. This might be perfect for a east-to-west cross country flight, or a hopeful winter-to-spring progression from December-February (for those of us who actually live where there are seasons). Whatever! Hope you enjoy, but do check out all the other great artists and tracks on FMA under CC licenses, and consider supporting the world of free and open music by donating to CC's Annual Campaign today! https://creativecommons.net/donate/

This mix curated by Jane Park at Creative Commons. I searched various CC-enabled music communities for tracks created specifically for Japan relief, especially album compilations that were created in the days following the tsunami. I also included tracks that were Japan-themed, such as field recordings, that lent to nice transitions between musical tracks. I hope you enjoy this mix and visit the album and artist pages that contain links to where you can donate to the Red Cross and other charities!